A "mystery" is solved. So many people have called to ask if we here at The News-Reporter know what the construction is on the former parking lot at the old Royal Manufacturing Company on Water Street. Of course, we know that Ruffin Flag Company does business in the old building. I called the company and talked to Soren Dresch, the president. He told me that the new building (which some have said looks like a church or a chapel) is to be the new showroom for all the flag company's products. He says that the building is much, much, larger than it looks and will be a great showroom for their flags, and for their leather furniture, and other products. I asked about his name and he told me that his first name is Scandinavian and his last name is German. He has two children - three and four years old.

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We had rain - lots of rain. But there is a wide range of rain amounts recorded in the county. Norris Ware on Hill Street reports 2.1 inches for the week; but reports from Jackson Heights and on the North By-Pass near Palmer's Equipment say three and four inches. So take your pick. Whatever it was, it was welcomed.

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Of course, here at the paper, we've always known it, but Jim Andrews confirmed that "News-Reporter ads work!" in an email we received this week. Jim sells Chevrolets for Tom Jumper Chevrolet in Atlanta and when visiting here a few weeks ago he noticed that there is no GM dealer in Washington. So he put a couple of ads in The News-Reporter to see if anyone here would call him to buy a Chevy. Ed Durham did. He called and bought a Suburban as an early Christmas present for his wife, Patty. Jim has another ad in this week. Check it out on page 9.

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I read in the Greensboro Herald- Journal that Charlie Jones of Rayle won the Greene County Country Club Golf Championship. He tied with Alex McMichael of Eatonton, another Washington-Wilkes young man, and won the match with a birdie on the first hole of sudden death. Both golfers shot two under par, 142 total for the 36-hole tournament. Charlie is the son of Peggy and John Jones of Rayle and is employed by the Forest Hills Golf Club in Augusta where he is the irrigation technician for the course. He is also a student at Augusta Technical College.

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In a round-about way, I had heard about Wayne Madden's bird dog tale. Monday morning Wayne sent me his own account of the tale. I don't usually use items this long, but it was so well written that I'm including the tale just as Wayne wrote it. It is too good to pass up. Read on. "One night recently my three bird dogs were unusually disruptive (barked too much.) When I went home to lunch the next day I remembered the prior night's unpleasant experience and thought I would check on the dogs. I whistled several times loudly and only two dogs jumped to their feet and bounced around in the pen hoping to go hunting or for a ride to the farm. Several more whistles produced only the two dogs so I walked anxiously down to the pen and looked about to find still only the two dogs up and about in the pen. After standing right against the fence and peeping into the doghouse I saw the dark red coat of the old Brittany Spaniel. I began to think of the good times they had experienced together hunting and hoped he had not suffered a lot as he passed on.

"I went inside and told Nancy that old Toby had died and that may have been the reason the dogs were so bothersome the night before. As I had lunch I remembered that I always buried my bird dogs and called my handyman telling him to find an assistant and come dig a grave for a bird dog. When they arrived, I had the shovel and mattock and was poking at the ground in the pet graveyard in the front yard. This was before the hurricane rain and I found the ground to be rock hard. Every effort produced a tree root or rock. So I suggested that they find softer ground even if it meant having two graveyards. Looking for softer ground led them to lower land in the backyard near the dog pen.

"Just as I found a soft spot to dig, I glanced over at the dog pen and announced to my helpers, 'He's alive.' There at the gateway of the pen sat the old dog curiously watching the activity. Old Toby has obviously lost his hearing since last hunting season and was sound asleep in the doghouse. One of the helpers said, 'Well, I guess we don't need a hole, but if you had marked the spot in the front yard, we would have dug his grave.'" Wayne says that the moral of this story is "Don't get too still for too long or someone will cover you up!" . . . There's a painting of Toby, along with Wayne's grandchildren, on the side of his M&M Office Supplies building downtown.

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Heard on a police scanner: a call came in to the police station about 1:30 a.m. Saturday night. A man said that a deer was chasing him on Spring Street and he needed help. When police arrived at the corner of Spring and Faver streets, they found him crouching in the bushes. They didn't find the deer. They took the man home ... I guess the deer was getting a head start on hunting season which opens soon.

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We all know that our weather this year has not followed its usual pattern of seasonal weather. Tulip trees, or maybe they're Japanese Magnolias, are blooming now. They are usually the first blooming things in very early spring, so early that the cold frequently nips them before they are in full bloom. There is one blooming in the yard of Kathy and Ricky Lindsey on South Alexander Avenue.

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Patsy Bailey brought me a copy of The South magazine which she picked up while visiting in Savannah. The August-September issue features "Savannah and the Creative Coast." One of the articles in the magazine is titled "Bulldog Nation." The article has a full page, full color picture of Tom Nash Jr. who grew up in Washington-Wilkes. He is a prominent Savannah attorney now, but in 1970 as a tackle for the Georgia Bulldogs he earned the title of All-Conference and All-American Academic Offensive Tackle. In the article, Tom remembers a time in 1965 when he was in the stands as a high school student when Georgia beat Alabama using the "flea flicker:" Kirby Moore to Pat Hodgson to Bob Taylor. Tom's dad, the late Tom Nash, also had an illustrious football career. He was perhaps the best all-around athlete ever produced by Wilkes County. He first gained fame at the University of Georgia where he was an All-American end in 1927. After college he earned all-pro football honors with the Green Bay Packers. He also played briefly for the Brooklyn Dodgers National League baseball team. In the 1950s he was named to the All-Time Georgia Bulldogs Football Team. After he retired from football and came back to Washington-Wilkes, he coached high school football and later served as principal of the Washington- Wilkes Elementary School.